Review Fix Exclusive: Robert Hoffman Talks ‘What the Fandango?’

June 18, 2019 Patrick Hickey Jr. Theatre 0

Review Fix chats with Robert Hoffman, who discusses his upcoming promotion of “What the Fandango?”

The show will run Tuesday June 25 at 7:30pm and Saturday on the eve of World Pride New York, Saturday June 29 at 7:30pm at Revelation Gallery, 224 Waverly Place (between W11th ST and 7th Ave.

About Robert Hoffman:

Hofmann has sung many roles with West Australian Opera including Koko in The Mikado and Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love. He has sung with Opera Australia and performed in two cabarets with DivaLicious at the Sydney Opera House. His award-winning cabaret, Desperately Young at Heart played in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Edinburgh Fringes to rave reviews. Playing the piano accordion is the brilliant New York based Will Holshouser who has played with Ute Lemper, David Krakauer, Antony and The Johnsons, Martha Wainwright, Loudon Wainwright, Andy Statman, Phillip Johnston, Matt Munisteri & Brock Mumford, the Raymond Scott (tribute) Orchestrette, Roberto Rodriguez, Mark Morris Dance, New York City Ballet, Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others including Ron Horton (trumpet) and David Phillips (bass) in the Will Holshouser Trio.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Robert Hoffman: I love singing, theatre and making people laugh so I was inspired to create a cabaret with four characters, partly based on people I have encountered, who have compelling reasons to sing. For example, one of my characters, Susan Higgins (pictured) is a Christian guitar-playing singer who was inspired by a real life experience I had attending a Catholic church service for Good Friday.  The singer then played a Taize hymn to help us reflect but it was just an uninspired short piece of music repeated over and over and over and getting more and more out of tune.  I had to leave the church service as I almost had a panic attack. 

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like? 

Hoffman: I start with real-life experiences and turn them into comedy cabaret.  I go through many drafts of the script with my director and assistant director/muse and others who help me edit and clarify my material for maximum impact on the audience.  I tell my designer all about the characters I invent and she makes a costume to suit them.  Songs (both my originals and covers) often present themselves as perfect choices to suit the comedy situation.  But sometimes I find a song I love and work it in. 

Review Fix: What makes this different or special from other musical events of this genre?

Hoffman: In my show I play five different characters  involving six costume changes without ever leaving the stage during this one-hour cabaret.  Some costume changes are done while singing.  I do not know of any other cabaret like that. (See photo, all are me, Robert Hofmann except the accordion player, that’s NY legend Will Holshouser) 

Review Fix: What did you learn/are learning about yourself through this process?

Hoffman: That I have the ability to fully inhabit a character/persona that is not me and this makes people laugh.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this for the future?

Hoffman: To perform my cabarets in major venues/theatres in places like Sydney, London and New York. 

Review Fix: What’s next?

Hoffman: I am sketching out ideas for my next cabaret which may premiere at Perth Fringe World 2020.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14263 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*